五、阅读理解
Are you the kind of person who doesn't like school? Or are you more like Michael Nicholson, who can't stop learning? He has 30 degrees (学位), including 22 master's and a doctor! If you're also crazy about studying, you might be a philomath—a person who loves to learn and study. The word comes from Greek with "phil" meaning "a lover of" and "math" meaning "learning".
Humans are all philomaths in a way—our brain (大脑) is born to learn and understand, not only to know the world better but also because of something called neoteny. This word means the childlike features (特征) of some animals, including humans, that stay with them even when they become adults (成年人). One of these features is neuroplasticity (神经可塑性), which helps our brains stay flexible—this gives us the ability to learn all our lives. Many animals which are close to us in DNA, like primates (灵长类), can't do this and can only learn during their youth.
Lots of people remember their school days as being boring or even meaningless. Why is it? Scientists have suggested that if an idea is too difficult or boring, it becomes harder to bring old and new ideas together. If this happens, we lose interest and take in less information. This experience of education at school may lead to (导致) people giving up learning chances later in life.
So, don't let a bad educational experience stop you learning something new as an adult. We are lifelong learners by nature, so make good use of your biology and find out your natural philomath. Who knows what you could make happen?
（ ）1. Michael Nicholson is talked about in Paragraph 1 to
A
.
A. give an example
B. make comparison (对比)
C. raise a question
D. list numbers
（ ）2. What does the underlined phrase "stay flexible" in Paragraph 2 mean?
C
A. Work very hard.
B. Forget things quickly.
C. Be able to change easily.
D. Move slowly and carefully.
（ ）3. Which of the following can be put in "______"?
D
A. And being a philomath is easy.
B. So school education is the most important.
C. And children would try hard at school.
D. Many people love learning, but still there are some can't stand (忍受) it.
（ ）4. The writer's writing purpose (目的) is to
D
.
A. introduce what a philomath is
B. tell us the importance of learning
C. show how a philomath develops
D. encourage us to be a lifelong learner
